The present invention pertains to an apparatus for testing the durability of a sole of a shoe and has for its principal object the artificial simulation of actual outer sole wear on a test shoe.
It has been the practice in the prior art to test the durability of special purpose shoes, such as track shoes, football shoes, basketball shoes and the like, by subjecting test shoes to the rigors of actual sporting events using volunteer athletes. Such actual use testing is undesirable for a number of reasons. On the one hand, actual use testing is impractical in that it requires the production of a completely finished product, thereby precluding testing at an intermediate stage of development. From another standpoint, the time for obtaining test results is much too long. Furthermore, the parameters and environmental conditions of actual use testing are difficult to measure and control.
Accordingly, attempts have been made in the prior art to provide an apparatus for simulating actual outer sole wear. One such example is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,130,007. Although this patent discloses an apparatus which would appear to achieve the purpose of producing some measure of sole durability in a relatively short period of time, the apparatus is extremely intricate with a large number of moving parts which increases the likelihood of malfunction and resulting test interruption.